"There is no prize to perfection, only an end to pursuit"
"The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"
"There are no winners in war, only Widows and Orphans"
"You may have won, but I never lose"
"Ignorance is strength"
"All animals are equal, some are just more equal than others"
"Soldiers die just to bring their generals an ounce of glory"
"The world is filled with the ruins of empires that once believed they were eternal"
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My brain has been infected with malware and I can't help but view these as 'hard' Youtube shorts comments made by 11 year olds
That being said. I do think that the first one deserves some reflection. Finishing in some senses is not a reward. The struggle is the prize, it distracts from the world, you are goal oriented and focused. I feel like I'm missing that now so it's especially poignant.
The first quote is from arcane, the second quote is from an author in 1795, the 3rd quote is from a military general, 4th quote from nelson mandela, 5th quote from George Orwell's 1984, 6th quote is from George Orwell's Animal Farm, 7th quote is from a military general, the last quote is from a philosopher and author. I think all of those quotes have an insightful meaning.
You're probably right, these probably have been said a lot in yt comment sections, but doesn't that just prove their validity? There are a lot of very good quotes that originate from comment sections, like "in order to judge something, you must first understand it".
In regards to the first quote, I took a different message from it, that being, that what drives people to make better things and to help people is the idea of a perfect life and society, but without that goal for what could be, our technology and ideals will stagnate. Imperfections are what make you perfect.
It does in a way prove their validity, however there is also a phenomenon where the more you repeat something the less power it has. And that may be true for language like this, simple, originally impactful sentences that have been watered down so much they can be easily dismissed unless packaged in some larger statement as a thesis. See "This person is a Nazi".
Not trying to disprove anything you've said or the validity of the quotes themselves. They do have merit.
Many of these quotes were intended to be one-liners or repeated infinitely by masses of people; both the quotes made by gorege orwell were intended to be repeated infinitely without losing their instinctive meaning. Quotes 3, 4 and 7 definitely do need to be packaged in some larger statement to work well, but I think the others rely on instinctive human emotion to work, so their validity can't necessarily be watered down.